PHOTOGRAPHY by denise ippolito

My love for flowers began when I was about 8 years old. My Grandparents owned a flower shop called “Applegate’s Florist” in Princeton NJ at Palmer Square. I remember the place as if it were yesterday; I can still smell the Chrysanthemums and the Freesia. I love those scents and probably will for life. I guess it’s no surprise that I opened my own florist shop many years later.
Flowers have continued to be an important part of my life. I am no longer a florist but I still enjoy working with flowers. Nowadays I spend my time photographing flowers instead of designing floral arrangements. I love the softness of intentionally blurred images. The colors blend together so nicely. To pre-visualize an image I will often squint at a potential subject for a minute and try to decide if it will make a pleasing blur. By squinting I can actually see how the flowers will look blurred. Next I consider the shape of the flower and decide in what direction I will move my camera to complement the lines and flow of the elements in the image.
The Purple Heather below has several spiky shaped stalks clustered very closely together on the plant that lend themselves nicely to a vertical movement.

Purple Heather
Image © 2010/Denise Ippolito Photography
ISO 100. 0.6 sec. at f/22 with the 100mm macro lens.

Hydrangeas
Image © 2010/Denise Ippolito Photography
ISO 100. 0.8 sec. at f/32 with the 100mm macro lens.

Please keep an eye out for the release of “The Guide to Pleasing Blurs” that Arthur Morris and I are working on right now.